1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a newspaper production apparatus which produces a newspaper by performing ink jet printing on a continuous paper and cutting and folding the continuous paper.
2. Description of the Related Art
Newspaper as a representative medium of mass communication has played its role through large circulation of many pages on which contents covering various fields including politics, economy, literature, sports, hobby, entertainment, etc. are printed. Recently, however, instead of large circulation of many pages, there has been an increasing demand for newspapers that match particular tastes of readers, such as a newspaper focusing on topics field by field, a newspaper targeting readers of a limited district, generation, occupation, etc., a newspaper having characters of both of them, etc. Then, as a newspaper producing means to deal with this demand, newspaper production apparatuses relying on digital printing such as ink jet printing which does not use a press plate are proposed by Patent Documents 1 to 4 identified below.
Newspaper production disclosed in Patent Document 1 includes (1) a receiving element such as a grasping device, a sucker, etc. receiving sheet by sheet, from a conveyor, sheets of paper on which digital printing such as ink jet printing, etc. has been performed or sheets of paper cut out from a continuous paper on which digital printing has been performed, and carrying the sheets sequentially into a collecting station, (2) stacking the sheets one upon another on the collecting station, (3) discharging a stack of a certain number of sheets from the collecting station, (4) continuously carrying a subsequent series of printed sheets one by one into the collecting station from which the stack has been discharged, (5) carrying the stack discharged from the collecting station into a folding station, and (6) folding the stack in the folding station and outputting the stack from the folding station. The steps (1) to (6) are performed sequentially by the respective stations.
Newspaper production disclosed in Patent Document 2 is approximately the same as that disclosed in Patent Document 1. To be specific, Patent Document 2 is different from Patent Document 1 in disclosing that after a printed continuous paper is dried, it is divided into two pieces in parallel with the direction of continuation, and in disclosing as to the steps (1) and (2) that a delivery fan mechanism which rotates intermittently is provided in the collecting station, and sheets of paper cut out from a continuous paper on which digital printing has been performed are discharged toward the blades of the delivery fan maintained horizontally so that the sheets are stacked, or that sheets of paper cut out from a continuous paper on which digital printing has been performed are sequentially inserted into between respective blades of a continuously rotating delivery fan having many blades arranged in a circumferential direction, and then a baffle plate lets the sheets of paper fall from between the blades onto a conveyor so that the sheets are stacked.
Newspaper production disclosed in Patent Document 3 includes, in an order from an upstream side: a digital printing system which prints on a continuous paper; a side edge cutting station which cuts unnecessary side edge portions of the continuous paper; a lengthwise direction cutting station which cuts the continuous paper in its lengthwise direction (in parallel with the direction of continuation); a widthwise cutting station which cuts the continuous paper widthwise (orthogonally to the direction of continuation) to separate it into sheets of paper; a removing device which removes faulty sheets including a poorly printed portion or a damaged portion, etc. from the separated sheets on the process path; a collecting station on which the sheets of paper are stacked; a carrying device which carries the stack of sheets stacked on the collecting station to a widthwise folding station; a widthwise folding station which folds the stack carried by the carrying device in a direction transverse to the carrying direction; a lengthwise direction folding station which folds the stack in the carrying direction; a sewing station which sews the folded stack along the folding edge; a second collecting station into which a signature formed by folding the stack or by folding and sewing the stack is inserted one into another; and a delivery station which delivers a completed newspaper. By bringing any stations that are unnecessary according to the configuration and format of the newspapers to be made into a non-operative condition, it is possible to produce various types of newspapers that are different from one another in the configuration and format, without interrupting the continuous producing process.
By indicating the publication number of a European Patent, Patent Document 3 suggests, as the collecting station, a rotary cylinder mechanism which is provided with plural pairs of claws arranged in parallel with its shaft center and which allows sheets of paper to be stacked on its outer circumferential surface by the two claws of each pair alternately sandwiching and retaining a sheet between themselves and the outer circumferential surface. Likewise, by indicating the publication number of a European Patent, Patent Document 3 suggests, as either or both of the widthwise folding station and the lengthwise direction folding station, a mechanism which includes at least: a feed surface; a pair of initial folding rollers parallel with the feed surface and having axes parallel with each other; at least one pair of moving rollers having axes orthogonal to the feed surface and provided above the initial folding rollers; and a rectilinear knife which is a folding blade provided in parallel with the axes of the initial folding rollers. This mechanism feeds a stack of sheets, which are horizontally put and fed to the feed surface, into between the pair of initial folding rollers by causing the rectilinear knife to project upward a portion of the stack at which the stack is to be folded, then causes the two initial folding rollers to rotate about their axes while sandwiching therebetween the projected stack of sheets to form an incomplete folding line and at the same time send forth the stack to the at least one pair of moving rollers provided above, and then causes the at least one pair of moving rollers to rotate while sandwiching therebetween the folding line to form a complete folding line and at the same time send forth the stack of sheets in parallel with the axes of the initial folding rollers.
When producing a newspaper of a blanket size, newspaper production disclosed in Patent Document 4 defines a blanket-size newspaper such that the widthwise direction of a continuous paper and the horizontal direction of the blanket-size newspaper are parallel, sends forth to the downstream side the continuous paper on which each predetermined number of pages are printed repeatedly in the lengthwise direction of the continuous paper by a digital printing device with two pages of the newspaper arranged in the widthwise direction of the continuous paper and at the same time cuts the continuous paper in parallel with the widthwise direction at lengths equal to the vertical dimension of the blanket-size newspaper, scores the cut sheets at their widthwise center, stacks the scored sheets by making the sheets sequentially straddle a collation chain such that their scored folding line aligns with the spine of the collation chain, folds the sheets into two by causing a discharging member to project the folding line of the plurality of sheets straddling the collation chain while being stacked into between carrying conveyors facing each other, and guides the twofold sheets to a quarter folding mechanism, which then produces the sheets into a fourfold blanket-size newspaper. When producing a newspaper of a tabloid size which is half the blanket size, newspaper production disclosed in Patent Document 4 defines a newspaper of a tabloid size half the blanket size such that the widthwise direction of a continuous paper and the vertical direction of the tabloid-size newspaper are parallel, sends forth to the downstream side the continuous paper on which each predetermined number of pages are printed repeatedly in the lengthwise direction of the continuous paper by the digital printing device with two pages of the newspaper arranged in the widthwise direction of the continuous paper and at the same time cuts the continuous paper in parallel with the widthwise direction at lengths double the horizontal dimension of the tabloid-size newspaper, scores the cut sheets at their widthwise center, stacks the scored sheets by making the sheets sequentially straddle the collation chain such that their scored folding line aligns with the spine of the collation chain, folds the sheets into two by causing the discharging member to project the folding line of the plurality of sheets straddling the collation chain while being stacked into between the carrying conveyors facing each other, guides the twofold sheets to a cutting/sewing station, cuts the twofold sheets at the vicinity of the scored folding line along the folding line to produce them into a stack of cut sheets in each of which there are arranged two pages of the tabloid-size newspaper of which horizontal direction is parallel with the cutting edge, and if necessary, sews the stack at its center in the direction in which the two pages of the tabloid-size newspaper are arranged such that the stack is sewn along a direction orthogonal to the cutting edge, and guides the stack to the quarter folding mechanism, which quarter-folds the stack along the sewing position to produce it into a twofold tabloid-size newspaper.    [Patent Document 1] JP2002-193545A    [Patent Document 2] JP2003-341927A    [Patent Document 3] JP2007-15859A    [Patent Document 4] JP2007-76923A